While in Florida, I met a Facebook friend that I had been connected with for two years. The Gay Christian Network Bible Study Group Orlando had graciously brought me to Disney Gay Days and, on the last night of my visit, a large group gathered for a potluck at which I spoke. It was there that I met Mitchell Melton.

Mitchell knew he was gay as a very young child. He knew with the same sense of “knowing” that most gay, lesbian and transgender children know. It is not sexual, it is a feeling of comfort and drawing to people of the same sex. They have an awareness of not being like their peers, an awareness with no words or language to label it. But Mitchell knew and that did not make his parents feel comfortable.

Baby Mitchell in arms

There had been a persistent tension between Mitchell and his mother. She held to the traditional views of what a majority of Christians believe the know the Bible says about homosexuality. She did not extend her son the comfort, love and acceptance he desired; the religious wall was high, wide and thick.

At the beginning of this year, Mitchell suggested to his Mom that she visit my website and read a different point of view from a conservative, heterosexual Evangelical Christian. She listened and she apparently read everything I wrote over the next few months.

Her attitudes and interactions with Mitchell began to noticeably change and she started to extend him affection, compassion and love. Mitchell told me the story on Sunday night; she had gained insights and understanding from my blog. I was a voice and person that she trusted as telling the truth.

Mitchell’s Mom wrote all three of her children letters a few weeks ago. In her letter to Mitchell she told him:

“Go tell Kathy that she needs to keep doing what she is doing. That people need her. Go give her a hug for me.”

So Mitchell traded a shift at work on Sunday night to come to the potluck and presentation. He gave me a massive hug from his Mom.

GCN BIble Study Group

Mitchell had attended the funeral of his Mom the Wednesday before; she had died of cancer.

And she died fully accepting and loving her gay son.

He was given the letter after she died. Mitchell came to thank me and tell me the story in person.

Please share my site and videos with your families that cannot hear your words. Somehow, God has anointed what He has called me to do and people often “hear” from me what you may want to tell them.

I hear tragic stories of families rejecting their gay and transgender children, brothers, sisters and relatives. Families that are missing the richness of love and community mostly because they do not have the education they need on the topic of homosexuality and the Bible.

Canyonwalker Connections exists to help in that work. Mitchell simply invited his Mom to seek another point of view and she began to understand her son. The walls crumbled.

Mitchell, he is loved.

It is beyond humbling to know that I played a part in the healing of this family. Mitchell will live out the impact of the acceptance he finally realized for the rest of his life. He is only 23, and he knows his Mom loved him as the person that God created — a fine Christian gay man.

Thank you honey for encouraging me too. Go be the fabulous person God made, Mitchell. Sing it from the highest hills. You are loved.

2 Responses to “Mitchell’s Mom Learned to Love Her Gay Son”

Kathy, I’m so glad you get these good stories to affirm you and your love filled, love motivated work — your life call. I imagine this the kind of gift that keeps you going even while you take bullets on the front line. You are in my prayers, always.

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MISSION

“Loosen the chains of injustice, untie the cords of the yoke, set the oppressed free and break every yoke. Then you will be called Repairer of the Breach.” Isaiah 58

The mission of Canyonwalker Connections is to repair the division that exists between social and Christian conservative and the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community through education, training, and dialogue in both secular and religious environments.